


life and death

by fortheloveoflestrade



Category: Sherlock (TV)
Genre: Gen, M/M, Not Canon Compliant, and that Sherlock didn't disappear for two years?, i don't know what this is, i guess, i just pretend Mary's not a thing, resolved angst, v tame
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-18
Updated: 2016-12-18
Packaged: 2018-09-09 15:34:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 391
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8897419
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fortheloveoflestrade/pseuds/fortheloveoflestrade
Summary: John Watson and Sherlock Holmes could have died a thousand times over.Unfortunately, the universe decides they should know this.After the pool, nothing is the same.





	

John and Sherlock wake with the memory of debris, and drowning; of Sherlock pulling the trigger on the vest of Semtex and the blast knocking them into the pool; of dying, slowly, agonizingly.

They wake in their own beds, afraid and confused of why they are not dead.

—

John checks both of them for injuries of any sort. There are none. 

Sherlock asks questions about details, specifics of the memory. His and John’s accounts are identical. 

How is it that both of them can remember dying last night, only to find themselves alive and well this morning?

How is it that they also remember coming home late last night, tired and relieved that they had survived the account with Moriarty?

They quietly agree to pretend the memory, the dream, whatever it was—it was merely a coincidence. Yet somehow they both know it is not.

They don’t talk about it again.

—

John wakes the moment Sherlock hits the ground. Choking back a scream, he crashes upright, out of bed, and through the flat to Sherlock’s room. He bursts in to find Sherlock, asleep, alive, unharmed. 

He stands, stares, gathering his mind, letting the adrenaline fade, and watching the rise and fall of Sherlock’s chest. 

He quietly makes his way back to his room and collapses back into bed.

—

Sherlock dreams of funerals. Lestrade. Mrs. Hudson. John.

He wakes as they lower John Watson into the ground.

—

John wakes, exhausted, at Sherlock’s bedside, hospital equipment quietly ticking away around them. He wakes, forcefully brought to consciousness by the thought that he lost Sherlock to a bullet. 

And despite all the evidence to the contrary wrapped around him, contained into this tiny hospital room, his chest still aches at the loss of Sherlock, too close. 

—

They are already awake. Neither of them want to sleep after the close call they just had. Both of them, while never having confirmed with one another since the first instance, know that they will only find death in sleep.

So they don’t sleep.

Sherlock plays his violin. 

John types away at his laptop.

They drink coffee at two am. 

They quietly watch sunrise creep through the windows of the flat. 

They don’t talk about it.

—

Months and months later, without any terribly close calls to agonize over, they wake in Sherlock’s bed, tangled together, warm and alive.

**Author's Note:**

> I honestly don't know what the hell this is. I had a random thought of "What if John and Sherlock had died all those times they were supposed to?" which then turned into "Well, okay, they can't die, but what if they think they did?". Like some alternate reality-wrong timeline shit. I used to write for Fringe, guys. This is the kind of shit my brain comes up with. 
> 
> I couldn't decide if I wanted to make this casual or full-on Johnlock, so I settled for somewhere in the middle. And also, I conveniently left out some stuff that didn't work for me (see: Mary, the 'real' Fall, etc.)
> 
> Would love some feedback on this hot mess, if you have any.


End file.
